Building structure



3 1951 K. WACHSMANN BUILDING STRUCTURE I5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 25, 1945 INVENTOR fforzfiad Wacksmrzn,

9 W ATTO R N EYS y my 1951 K. WACHSMANN 2,559,741

' BUILDING STRUCTURE Filed Oct. 25, 1945 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 M13 MW ATTORNEYS y 10, 1951 K. WACHSMANN BUILDING STRUCTURE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Oct. 25, 1945 n A n w R C O wm nB r, J m\ Patented July 10, 1951 BUILDING STRUCTURE Konrad Wachsmann, New York, N. Y., assignor of one-fourth to Charles Wohlstetter and onefourth to Albert Wohlstetter, New York, N. Y.

Application October 25, 1945, Serial No. 624,544

1 Claim. 1

The present invention relates to metal frame structures and the component elements thereof.

It is among the objects of the invention to provide a. structural frame element, which may be completely prefabricated and from which the structure can be speedily erected in the field by semi-skilled workers, without the need. for welding, or for rivets or cement, yet to provide a thoroughly firm, secure and dependable frame with effective pin connection between the constituent elements thereof, which may be readily disassembled when desired, Without the need for cutting tools or for destruction of any parts and which lends itself readily for arrangement of the frame elements in any of a wide variety of metal frame structures, such as trusses, open-web columns for buildings, bridges, towers, stanchion's and the like, and which in all of the multifarious structures, transfers the stress axially through the several rods or tubes.

In the accompanying drawings, in which are shown one or more of the various possible embodiments of the several. features of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a dropped perspective View showing the general relation of a multiplicity of the structure elements and their connectors as related prior to assembly,

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the assembled structure.

Fig. 3 is a side view of the construction of Fig. 2,

Fig. 4 is a sectional View taken on line i4 of Fig. 3,

Fig. 5 is a section of one of the structural members, taken on line E=5 of Fig. l, and

Fig. 6 is a. side elevation illustratively of a truss structure incorporating the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, the individual rod, bar, tube or beam of a plurality of which the frame structure is made, comprises desirably a steel rod is of standard construction, which may be a hollow rod or tube, as shown. The end of each rod is permanently equipped by welding, riveting, bolting or in any other manner, with a pair of parallel spaced eye plates H and I2 which are preferably applied in the factory. The eye plates on each rod are preferably similar in contour. That contour may include a pair of converging side edges [2 connected by a semicircular top edge l2 with the central perforation or eye it therethrough. For convenience, each eye plate is yoke-shaped, having a pair of spaced lateral arms is connected by a circular arc I2 concentric with eye 13. The free ends of the yoke arms straddle the rod I ii, the arms presenting shoulders l6 which abut the extremity of the rod. The arms it are desirably welded to the rod in. The mounting construction set forth. while desirable, is only one of numerous possible arrangements for affixing the eye plates to the rod.

According to the invention, the eye plates are of unequal thickness, the inner wall of the thicker of the eye plates ll extending in the central or axial plane of the rod I 8 while the thinner of the eye plates 12 is parallel to and spaced from the thicker of said eye plates by the thickness of the latter.

The two eye plates I 1, l2 are related in thickness as 1 to the square root of 2 plus 1, that is, as 1 to approximately 2.41, or as 1 to roughly two and two-fifths (2+ /5). By this ratio of thicknesses, the load transmitted through the conhector to the connecting pin (to be described hereinafter) will cause equal stress and strain per unit area at each eye plate of the assembly.

Departure from the ratios of eye thickness set forth brings about a. corresponding inequalit in unit stress and strain, but such departure within reasonable limits is within the scope of the in vention in its broader aspects.

In some applications, the various eye plates are interleaved. and correlated in such manner as to dispose the various rods making up the structure with a, minimum of spacing therebetween, and the eye plates are in face-to-f'ace engagement about the connector pin.

As can be determined by those skilled in the art, the arrangement for a connector and. pin of maximum combined bulk (where such arrangement is desired), for transmitting a given stress utilizing a given number and arrangement of connectors is that in which the pin or eye hole radius is three-eighths the outer radius of the eye plate, it being understood, of course, that the parts must be of sufficient strength to withstand the load imposed thereon.

In Fig. 1 of the drawings is illustratively indicated the mode of assembly of six of the structural rods, each equipped with its pair of connector eye plates, the six elements being illustratively shown related to form two sets of parallel rod pairs l0 whose axes lie in a common plane, and an intervening pair of rods Ill extending symmetrically at an acute angle thereto. As indicated in Fig. 1, the eye plates ll, I2 of the pair of horizontal rods It shown at the left, are to be intermeshed for alignment with each other, exactly as are shown the pair of rods [0 at the right of the figure. The various eye plates set forth are brought into registry and the mounting pin 20 is passed through the eyes I3 thereof, said pin, as best shown in Fig. 2, being of a length equal to the combined thicknesses of the six pairs of eye plates ll, [2 on the six rods thus associated together. The pin is anchored in place, as for instance between a pair of headed screws 2|, 22 at opposite ends thereof, each threaded at 24 into tapped bore 23 at the associated end of the pin 2d, the respective screw heads engaging the extreme eye plates of the assembly. Desirably, each screw head is provided with an outstanding fin 25 having an eye 28 centrally thereof, to which may be afiixed other structural elements where required, as for instance, indicated at the left of Fig. 1 in which the yoke end 21 of a rod 28 embraces the fin 25 and is attached thereto by a bolt 29 affixed as by a cotter pin 30.

Thus, as indicated in Fig. 2, the eye plates making up the assembly are juxtaposed in pairs of thicker eye plates H alternating with pairs of thinner eye plates l2, a thinner eye plate I: being located at each extremity.

The arrangement set forth lends itself readily to a truss assembly made up entirely of identical rods l which might even be identical in length, each equipped with th identical eye plates H, l2 at both of its extremities and each connected by the identical pin arrangement set forth. Such truss arrangement is illustratively shown in Fig. 6.

The arrangement set forth is of course only one of numerous possible arrangements to which the system of connectors set forth lends itself and it will be seen that, depending on the use or application, less or more than six of the rods might be assembled at a single joint with said rods extending in various directions or arrangements, depending on whether the frame structure to be produced is a truss, a tower, an open work panel or the like. Of course, the length of pin 20 used would vary with the number of rods to be assembled at the joint.

It will be understood that the structural rod and connector could be made in any of a wide variety of sizes up to the largest and heaviest types of building structures. The stress is directed longitudinally of the various rods, by compression or by tension, as the case may be, and the load transmitted through each connector into 4 the pin. will cause equal unit stress and strain in each plate of the same connector unit; also the bearing pressure exerted by both eye plates of the same connector unit is equal.

The facility of assembly is obvious from the above description as is the facility of disassembly of the structure frame, no welding, rivets or cementing operation whatsoever being resorted to, and the disassembly being efiected without the need for cutting, chipping or otherwise destroying any of the elements.

It will be understood that the pairs of eyes at opposite ends of any one red may lie in the same plane with the thicker eye plate aligned with that at the opposite end or reversed with respect thereto, or the eyes at the opposite ends might lie in different planes depending on the frame structure to be built therefrom.

As many changes could be made in the above construction, and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claim, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanying drawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

An element of a knockdown building structure, comprising a metal tube having eye plates rigidly affixed to the extremities of the tube and protruding therebeyond, said eye plates being of the same contour but of different thickness, each eye plate comprising a, yoke with arms straddling the end of the tube and having a shoulder abutment against the extremity of the tube and attached thereto, the inner face of one of said eye plates being substantially in the axial plane of the tube, the other eye plate being parallel thereto and spaced therefrom by substantially the thickness of said first eye plate.

KONRAD WACHSMANN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 96,025 Morse Oct. 19, 1869 503,135 Groves Aug. 15, 1893 

